Damon Lindelof's Watchmen

I will agree in retrospect that it was a misstep for the last panel to feature a smug portrait of Moore with arms crossed asking, 'Do you see?' (he should've gone with 'You're welcome' imo).

Watchmen is a very self-confident piece of work, but I think "pleased with itself" is unfair, if only for comparison's sake with From Hell, Providence, and the later series of LOEG, which are all super-smug works of art (even though I like From Hell).

agreed re both smugness and goodness when it comes to From Hell

that said I never picked up *quite* the levels of self-serious portent from the comic that Snyder's movie contained

The film is something else. The book has smugness by association for me - From Hell is Moore "doing" Iain Sinclair and Michael Moorcock (in a way), but I find them both annoying old gits.

confusingly enough, I was talking about the Watchmen movie there. Never saw the From Hell movie, looked dire.

Duh, of course.

But yeah, the Snyder Watchmen is *really* something else. I can't think of an adaptation that misses the point of the original source material to such an epic scale.

("Doomsday Clock" excepted.)

I still sometimes think about the aborted modern-day Greengrass adaptation with (reportedly) Tom Cruise attached as Veidt

and Michael Moorcock (in a way)

? I don't see this connection

Sinclair though, definitely

Series ordered, coming next year. Nicole Kassell directing the pilot

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/watchmen-hbo-series-damon-lindelof-1202908824/

Curious how they’ll step up the sex & violence beyond what the book had for HBO

With power over matter, Dr. Manhattan tossed his enlargement pills.

fwiw Leftovers didn't have much sex *or* violence

Got a 'who watches watchmen' joke ready to pop when this starts, look forward to working with you all

Hoooooly shit: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are doing the music for HBO’s Watchmen series!!! pic.twitter.com/Y7dyq6zl1Y

— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) September 20, 2018

just how many bad ideas can he come up with, let's find out!

this is a good idea!

scabs

Are they?

not sure I've summarized it before: Ethically, I think the Watchmen adaptations are ok bc Gibbons is fine with them & Moore doesn't like them, but the comic prequels/sequels are scabbing bc Moore actually said "please do not make any Watchmen comics." that's about the size of it.

— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) September 20, 2018

(as already established, I don't particularly care myself, everyone involved is doing fine AFAIK, but there seems to be some dispute.)

it's not about compensation as much as it is about ownership and basic respect imo

I would say that this at least seems to be a new story/characters, unlike the MCU shit

Moore also said "please do not make any adaptation" in 1989 and the contractor hired to make the adaptation stopped.

if Gibbons owned it, I doubt he'd be as keen on the adaptations that exist in our world, but he does keep separate his attitude to them vs his evident distaste for DC's dickery

are you referring to Gilliam there

yah

not so much "please don't" as "I wouldn't," and Gilliam choosing to treat him with a tiny fraction of respect, but the analogy holds

I've never heard that as being the reason Gilliam's adaptation didn't happen

It’s the reason Moore gave in the big three-issue Journal interview, corroborated by Gilliam in C21st interviews - I’ve never seen another.

I can't find TCJ interview but Moore says this to Wired

Mr. Gilliam did ask me how I would go about translating Watchmen into a film, and I said to him, "If anybody had asked me, Terry, I would have advised them not to." I think Terry is an intelligent man and came to that conclusion himself. And I think he said something to that effect, that he thought it was something probably best left as a comic and shouldn't be made into a film

which implies it was an aesthetic decision rather than a moral one. And Gilliam said this

In the end, I just felt Watchmen was unmakeable because when you reduce it down to a 2-hour film you're taking so much textured detail out that it kind of loses what it's about.

yes, an artist is able to make an aesthetic decision about a piece of art they created.

the TCJ interview was in TCJ, but it’s 2:30am in Seattle so they’re closed right now

An interesting new batch of Instagram teaser stuff was posted today. I have to say, it looks pretty darn cool (I’m not a big fan of the “property” or Lindelof or any of it, but I may sign up for HBO to check this out when it airs).

masked cops make just a little bit too much sense

https://i.imgur.com/hBL9KP0.jpg

lol

There’s something creepily compelling to me about the images... plus I’m kinda intrigued by the idea of doing a totally new story, with its own aesthetic, rather than trying to ape the original (though I know Doomsday Clock has taken some of the bloom off that rose).

we got a teaser, ft. a lot of Don Johnson.

https://youtu.be/zymgtV99Rko

Please tell me he's playing a flagrantly dong-flaunting Dr. Manhattan, please.

I wouldn't bet against Justin Theroux turning up in that capacity, tbh.

Wait is Jeremys Iron playing Adrian Veidt?

Yep.

nothing about that trailer is appealing

TBF it'll probably take another 2-3 remakes of Watchmen before they finally work the kinks out.

tbh all I'm hoping for is "Leftovers with masks" and this looks like that

I still think it looks potentially c00l. But my expectations are low here, so I’m easily pleased

Don Johnson is having a decent second (third?) act these days, he's always had a particular kind of magnetism which has often been ill-used but he looks good here.

(Also, I apparently have a soft spot Don Johnson; seeing him do his schtick here was appealing 2 me)

Also, Regina King is reliably amazing.

not knowing anything about Watchmen beyond the film i have no idea what the trailer is on about there but it looks intriguing.

SImon H otm re: Leftovers with masks

This looks fun! Noticeable lack of Manhattan/NYC too